While the Quebec historic series Musée Eden, starring Laurence Leboeuf, led the pack with nine wins at the 25th annual French-language television awards last night, it was the acclaimed drama Aveux that picked up most of the prizes in Quebec Academy of Cinema and Television’s more prestigious categories.

SRC’s Aveux (Confession) a 12-episode psychological thriller by playwright Serge Boucher (Pixcom) received six Gemeaux awards, including best drama series, best director (Claude Desrosiers), and best writing (Serge Boucher). Guy Nadon was also recognized for his starring role as the tormented father of an adopted son (Maxime Dénommée) who disappeared without a trace at the age of 18.

While Musée Eden, which is produced by Sophie Deschênes, mainly picked up awards in technical categories such as best costume and decor, Leboeuf won as best actress in a drama for her role as a young woman from Manitoba who arrives in Montreal in 1910 to take-over – with her sister (played by Mariloup Wolfe) – a wax museum. Nadon also won as best supporting actor for Musée Eden.

“I wasn’t expecting this,” said Leboeuf, who also stars in the dark English-language drama Durham County. “I don’t have any words. I’m really touched.”

The popular TVA teleroman Yamaska (Duo Productions), written by Anne Boyer and Michel D’Astous also received a number of prizes, including best writing, best teleroman, and best acting awards for leads Normand D’amour and Elise Guilbault.

In honor of its 25th anniversary the public was asked to pick its favorite Quebec TV series of all time. The winner, not surprisingly, was the satirical soap La Petite Vie, which drew more than three million viewers at the peak of its popularity in the mid-1990s.

Les Gemeaux were hosted by Veronique Cloutier and was broadcast live from Montreal’s concert hall, Places des Arts. The awards were handed out at three separate ceremonies on Sept. 16, the afternoon of Sept. 19 and finally last night’s Gala ceremony.

Shows that air on Radio-Canada dominated the nominations and rival network TVA continues to refuse to participate – it alleges the awards are biased in favor of Radio-Canada programs – although some independent producers which broadcast on TVA submitted their programs.